Cotton, Lankford Look to Spending Bills as Counter to Immigration Executive Action

This week, President Obama outlined his plan to act alone on immigration reform. But the GOP’s newest crop of senators are already discussing the Senate’s plan to combat Obama’s executive action.

During a joint appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” Republican Sens.-elect Tom Cotton of Arkansas and James Lankford of Oklahoma denounced claims that Republicans would shut down the government over immigration. However, they agreed that Congress could use its power to withhold the funding Obama needs to implement his immigration plan.

“I’d love to see that bipartisanship again for the Congress to step up to the president and say to a president, ‘You do not have that kind of executive authority to do this. You have to do your responsibility, and we have to do ours,’” Lankford said.

Congressional Republicans already have discussed using their constitutionally granted power of the purse to stymie the president’s attempts to protect up to 5 million immigrants in the United States illegally. Obama has said he would provide many of them with work permits.

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